On 3/18/2012 1:57, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
On 3/16/2012 21:04, Prasad, Ramit wrote:
People spell your name Stephen, sometimes too. Thinking of changing
it? Gore Vidal's quote has panache, a valid compensation for breaking
the usual rule. How many other uses on that page are similar?
He provided common examples and reference links. Seems like a pretty
reasonable way of trying to prove a point. If you don't like reference
links, what would convince you that the point was correct? I have not
seen any counter examples or counter references on your behalf...
He's referring to this "rule":
"A colon should not precede a list unless it follows a complete
sentence; however, the colon is a style choice that some publications
allow."
http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/colons.asp
That is an invented prescriptivist rule and not based on English grammar
as it actually is used by native English speakers. It is *bullshit*. Even
the author of that page breaks it. Immediately following the above
prohibition, she follows it with the sentence fragment:
"Examples:"
and then a list -- exactly what she says you may not do.
I never said that rule is acceptable. I agree with you on that.
People *do* precede lists by a colon following a sentence fragment. This
is unremarkable English grammar, with only a tiny number of arse-plugged
prescriptivists finding anything to complain about it, and even they
break their own bullshit made-up so-called rule.
The vast majority of English speakers write things like:
TO DO:
- mow the lawn
- wash the car
- take kids to the zoo
- write book on grammar
and there is nothing wrong with doing so.
That's perfectly acceptable.
Robert Kern put it very well in his post:
"don't use a colon to separate a transitive verb from its objects".
You can't say
TO DO
- mow the lawn
- ...
because "TO DO mow the lawn" doesn't "flow".
But why should we break a sentence when there's no need to do so?
Why should you write
The matrix:
....
is equal to....
Why the colon? Why break the flow of a sentence without reason?
I would generalize Robert Kern's rule a little:
"don't put a colon into a sentence which is fine already".
Example:
You should
- mow the lawn
- do the dishes
- walk the dog
That's perfectly fine. Commas are conveniently omitted.
As a side note, titles of movies, newspapers etc... don't follow common
rules. Articles may be omitted, verbs may be missing, etc... They're
just titles.
Kiuhnm
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